Geraldo mic cut? A report claims that host Geraldo Rivera’s mic was cut by Fox News top brass for defending President Barack Obama over his response towards the attacks on the Benghazi consulate in September.
Fox News President Roger Ailes ordered the control room to silence Geraldo’s mic two days before the November election, reported The New York Times, citing a new book.
“Roger Ailes covered the Benghazi story as if it were Watergate just before Nixon’s resignation, with almost wall-to-wall coverage,” wrote Johnathan Alter, a columnist for Bloomberg, in his book “The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies.”
He wrote that Rivera was the lone Fox reporter “allowed to offer a dissenting view.”
During “Fox & Friends” on Nov. 2, Rivera angrily responded to claims by three Fox hosts over the Obama administration’s response during the Benghazi attacks.
“After the argument continued for several minutes, Ailes called the control room and told the producers to cut Rivera’s mic,” Alter wrote.
The Times report prompted a response from Fox, which said "no one shut off Geraldo's mic."
"Fox News EVP of Programming, Bill Shine, did call down to the "Fox and Friends" morning show because he thought Rivera and the show hosts' escalating words in a debate about the Benghazi terror attack were simply not good television, and that the segment had run its course," the report said.
